I thank the Chair for the opportunity to raise this matter. I wish the Minister of State, Deputy McManus well in her very important, complex and challenging brief. I have no doubt she will bring her excellent talents to the role and I wish her every success.
The issue now arising dates back to the late 1960s and early 1970s when the intentions for the future placement of the population growth of the greater Dublin region were cast down following the Myles Wright report of the late 1960s. The theory was good but, unfortunately the practice was deplorable.
My constituency contains two of the new satellite towns of Clondalkin/Lucan and Blanchardstown. In North Clondalkin there are many thousands of corporation houses. It is the only area with the stigma of having an interdepartmental committee to examine a task force study on urban crime which arose because a minute percentage of a wonderful 20,000 plus community caused trouble some years ago. Many issues arose. One was the isolation and lack of contact with Dublin Corporation, the body that constructed the homes of the people who reside in North Clondalkin. Successive Governments can be criticised, but at the heart of the problem was the incompetence of management and what was done in County Dublin by Dublin Corporation. Its elected council would not disagree with its management, about redressing some of the anomalies we had to contend with in the county.
In regard to the properties being transferred, Dublin Corporation is retaining a ten year monopoly in the allocation of these houses to future applicants on the housing list and also wishes to ignore the deplorable level of maintenance and lack of spending on the upkeep of these residences. It has, for years, taken the rents into City Hall, and has put nothing back by way of community facilities. It has been an absolutely deplorable house developer and landlord. The trenchant criticism of the corporation's approach is one that I hope the Minister will vigorously address when called upon to act as honest broker in an endeavour to resolve the matter between South Dublin Council and Dublin Corporation. This also applies in the case of Fingal County Council. If the corporation's scheme was implemented a heavy financial burden would be placed on South Dublin County Council which would not be allowed to meet the needs of residents as a result.
The rent arrears outstanding in Dublin Corporation estates are considerably higher than the amounts outstanding in South Dublin County Council estates because of the frustration and annoyance of residents at the lack of maintenance.I trust that the Minister of State will intervene and inform Dublin Corporation that its housing stock and other assets will be transferred to the democratically elected local councils for management purposes.